How can organizations ensure that employees at every level feel important and appreciated? While hierarchy is necessary, it can lead to comparison, competition, and separation between higher, middle, and lower workers. These obstacles can be overcome if everyone is included in working together toward a common goal. Management should hold regular talks to emphasize that mutual benefit can be achieved only through the efforts and participation of every worker and all will prosper through working together. All are equal participants toward accomplishing the goal, and even simple work is essential. We are all mutually dependent, each one does their part for the good of the whole, and recognizes the value of each one’s unique contribution. Everyone is responsible for creating an environment where everyone is valued, where each one is greeted as a friend by all the others. Upon entering the gate of the workplace, each one should peel off all their shells and enter with a warm heart and uplifted spirits for having been granted the opportunity to work together in common purpose.

Being equal to others is generally not enough for us; rather, we want to stand out, to be unique and different in some way. If not, if we compare ourselves to others and measure our worth as “less than” or “not enough,” we feel great suffering. We measure ourselves through the eyes of others. We need to look for how we can give our unique gifts to others. If we help and love those around us, no one will stand in our way. There is room for everyone. Even a small contribution is important since it joins with others’ contributions to create success for the whole. The most successful people are those who properly arrange their mutual connection with others. If we pay attention to where our gifts can match others’ lacks, there is no doubt that our lives will be lifted by the appreciation of others for the positive effect we have on our environment. By recognizing each one’s specific offering, we become equal partners in attaining the goal, and by our mutual help we will reach the top.

A conversation between Rav, Dr. Michael Laitman and the "Kabbalah for All" writers team

Today, as never before in history, we experience internal pressure to fulfill our growing desires. We are never content, always trying to outdo others, which leads to great stress and dissatisfaction. Although we have unprecedented abundance, the experience of satisfaction disappears as soon as our desires are met and only emptiness remains. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah we can find fulfillment only if we connect to each other and nourish each other. We need to learn together how to receive pleasure through fulfilling the desires of others, to connect to others so that the more we give the more we are filled. If we can think about others and not about ourselves, we will feel emotionally balanced, tranquil, and internally elated.

Nature creates generation gaps so that humanity will advance. It is impossible to convey the wisdom of life to younger generations, so we need to establish an environment that reflects positive values. If an adult has a desire to give, he should try to learn what is good for the young person and give that. A parent should be close to his child, like a friend, so that he can speak to him freely about everything without moralizing or criticizing. Only love can help us communicate and bridge the generation gap. We should show a child that if he does something wrong, he makes us change our attitude toward him. There is a wide pipeline between our child and us through which love constantly flows, but the key to the tap is in the hands of the child.

The education system needs to teach children how to behave in relationships. Children who grow up in families with violent communication will likely feel insecure and want to escape. They should withdraw from their violent family environments in order to succeed in building new, corrected patterns. They need positive examples to learn from. The first principle we should teach is the principle of equality. If someone relates to us with verbal violence, we reflect the same back to them, like a mirror image, so they will feel their need for correction. Behind the principle of equality, there is a desire to be built by each other, to build the right patterns for ourselves.

Children need to be encouraged to not harm anyone and that, if we preserve our environment and the integrality of nature, we will gain from it. We need to tell children the extent to which we are infinitely connected to nature and emphasize the unity between the forces of nature. We educate them by giving examples and then explaining. We should first ruin as little as possible and then see how we can better our environment. We avoid doing unnecessary things and, by the mere fact that we don’t destroy anything, we already start building. Examining and determining my attitude to everything that happens in advance, from every angle, before we act, is what we need to learn from life.

In a corrected life, we scrutinize the conflicts between us with the intention of reaching love and peace above them. In order to quarrel correctly, we need to learn the method of relationships that is explained in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Men and women are innately different. Quarrels should be regarded as the necessary revelation of each one’s nature in contrast and opposition to the nature of another. The natural gap between them can be bridged when we openly express our preferences, respect each other’s views, set a good examples for one another, and establish mutual understanding.

A long time before kids leave home, we need to get them used to calling their parents once a day and visiting them weekly. It is important for the parents to share what they go through, to show that they care, to ask questions, and to set an example. The parents should prepare their children for the phase of leaving home and raise them to be independent. Kids who have not received the right preparation for life will feel weak, and will find it hard to build themselves and establish a connection with a life partner. Parents should give their children a sense of security, guidance, and a feeling that we are always there for them.

In an emotionally balanced family, the members of the family know how to get along with each other and how to help each other. The emotional balance of each individual in a family depends on the family as a whole. Children who grow up in a connected environment know how to relate to others correctly, are comfortable to live with, and don’t invade anyone’s space. A child can cause a family to lose its balance and upset the general atmosphere. Parents should show that they are not impressed by a child’s extreme behavior. They should set an example by the kind of attitude that they show to others and by keeping their own emotional balance. The parents’ goal is to show that there is a limit to any emotion or relationship.

As parents, we want our children to lead serious, balanced lives and to know how to relate to other people. We need to set the right example of agreement and acceptance between parents, an example of mutual respect. Children need to see that their parents are as one, sharing the same views. It is a principle that stems from “a man and a woman, Divinity dwells between them.” This means that the connection between them is the strongest. As a result of the parents’ example, the children will learn that they too need to try to live in agreement and mutual support. As parents we try to be as one, to share views, desires, and our perspective of each other.

We are all egoists and if we want to communicate, we need to adapt to each other by making mutual concessions. Building a family connection requires that each member of the family understands human nature. Parents should consult the kids about their family relations, which will help the kids to cope with conflict and reach agreements. Teens shouldn’t be suffocated or pushed to share their feelings. They need limits, freedom, and guidance. They need to know that they always have a protective shelter and a warm, loving home in order to feel secure. Parents also need to set an example by showing the kids how they cope with anger and calm themselves down. Parents also need to show the kids that they don’t always think alike and that, sometimes, one of them identifies with the kids. We need to make children aware that the role of the family is to help them to grow successfully.

There cannot be contact and connection without feeling limitations and conflict with others. Siblings don’t feel each other if they don’t quarrel, but they may have difficulties with communication. Fighting over toys is natural between toddlers, and parents should not intervene as long as there is no physical harm. If a child cries to his parents that his sibling has done something to him, the parent can hug him, but shouldn’t take sides. Quarreling for the sake of harming others is unacceptable, but otherwise it is a part of normal life. Quarrels strengthen the connection and love between us if we know how to rise above the feeling of rejection. Parents should not fight and should play with their children to provide an example of how to behave properly. To sum up, we should let siblings develop freely in order for them to become experienced and wise.

I need to constantly imagine what my child lacks and how I should relate to him with respect to that lack. We should parent using three approaches: as a grownup who dictates, as an equal, and as smaller by learning from the child and modeling that it is okay not to know things. A successful child is a balanced child who does not burst out for better or for worse, a child who understands where he is and behaves maturely. I should let the child feel that I am always on his side and whatever I do is for his sake; when I have to force him to do something, it distresses me. It is a good idea to share my internal world with a child while not pressuring him and giving him space to grow independently. To sum up, do everything together with the child so that he will understand that cooperation is the key to success in life.

A woman is usually more warm and emotional and a man is more practical. A woman is made of different forms: she is 25% mother, 25% little girl, 25% woman and 25% man. A man does not give birth and so he doesn’t change. He is a reserved, limited creature. Complementation is built on the feeling that each side wants to connect with the other because they see a real gain in life as a result of the connection. A couple should get used to speaking about everything and expressing what they feel with words. We need to learn to connect to each other carefully and gently, to gradually open our hearts and develop love between us until we finally merge correctly as two opposites and feel as one body.

The family is the nest in which a person grows. People who grow up without family support encounter problems throughout their lives. They lack the power that family provides. Modern civilization destroys our connection with family. It is impossible to solve family problems unless we teach people how to reach connection and love between them by overcoming the human ego. All the connections between family members will fall apart until we discover that we need a new quality of connection in general.